
Class _JE1L2^ 



,17 



Book. 



GopYiightFygV,^ 



CQPiRlGHT DEPOSm 




THE ASSAY OFFICE OX WALL STREET 

From the Report of the Director of the Mint, 1920. 



THE SITE OF THE ASSAY OFFICE 

ON 

WALL STREET 



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

THE SUCCESSIVE PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND 

MEN IN PUBLIC LIFE CONNECTED WITH THE 

site; INTERSPERSED WITH SOME 

FAMILY HISTORY 



BY 

WILLIAM E. VERPLANCK 



1921 






Copyright 1921 by 
William E. Verplanck 




DEC237I 



0^A03O936 



^v/v 



This iicarrative is inscribed to the Honorable 
Verne ^I. Bovie, Superintendent of the Assay 
Office during the period of construction of the 
new building, 1917-21, and the renovation after 
the disastrous bomb explosion on September 
16th, 1920, and to Messrs. York and Sa^vj^er, 
architects of the new building, the narrative is 
also inscribed. 

William E. Verplanck. 

Mount Gulian, Fishkill N. Y. 
November 1921. 



THE SITE OF THE ASSAY OFFICE 
ON WALL STREET 

The land on which the Assay Office stands has 
been devoted to pubhc use or been the home of 
men in pubhc service for nearly three centuries. 

During the latter part of the Dutch Govern- 
ment a wall or cingel ran along the northern 
boundary of New Amsterdam from river to 
river, as a protection against the Indians, and 
also as some historians contend, against the 
aggressions of the Yankees of Connecticut of 
whom the burghers were equally apprehensive. 
The term cingel was also applied to the passage- 
way along the inside of the wall, details of which 
are shown in Stokes Iconography of Manhattan 
Island (published in 1918), particularly volume 
II, plate 87. 

The wall was removed soon after British rule 
was established by the cession of New Nether- 
land in 1673; for the Dutch had recaptured New 
Amsterdam a few years before and the little 
town had spread northward. Along the south 



side of the wall a street was laid out which came 
to be known as Wall Street, much as another 
new street of this period became New Street. 
This part of Wall Street, however, was a some- 
what shabby one for some time. Frederick 
Trevor Hill has written an excellent history of 
this street (pubhshed 1908) : "The Story of a 
Street." 

The new City Hall which the English built, 
under the Earl of Bellomont, Governor-General* 
in 1700, in place of the former one of the Dutch 
at Coenties Slip, was followed by the new 
church of the Presbyterians where the Bankers 
Trust Company now stands, with a belfry tower- 
ing over the City Hall. All this made for a gen- 
eral improvement of the neighborhood, but it 
had few private houses of importance. The 

* He was a reformer, and among other abuses in the Province, 
he took measures to suppress piracy which had greatly increased 
owing to the complicity of merchants and the countenance, as it 
was charged, of Benjamin Fletcher who had preceded him as 
governor. Whereupon Bellomont induced William Kidd, a man of 
excellent repute in New York, to head the project. Kldd, how- 
ever, turned pirate, having accomplices in prominent men. Al- 
though Kidd was eventually captured and hung at London, an 
inquiry into the profits and other phases of the affair was voted 
down in the House of Commons, and, soon after, Bellomont died. 
His successor was Viscount Cornbury, own cousin to Queen 
Anne, and he had no zeal for reform. The Memorial History of 
the City of New York (1892, 3 vols, illustrated) contains full 
and fair reviews of the colonial governors, Dutch and British. 

8 



fashionable part of the town then, and for some 
time later, was upper Queen Street, as Pearl 
Street was then called, particularly what is now 
Franklin Square. It was at the corner of Cheriy 
and Queen Streets that President Washington 
lived during his first administration. 

In 17(51 Samuel Yerplanck, on completing his 
education in Holland returned home to New 
York, bringing with him a rich wife from Am- 
sterdam. He built his house on this site; land 
which his father had devised to him by will. The 
lot extended about 75 feet along the north side 
of Wall Street. In the rear was the stable on a 
tongue of land which extended to King, now 
Pine, Street. On the west was a garden adja- 
cent to the Citv Hall. One of the bastions of the 
old wall had stood on the lot. 

Samuel's house was a large one for those days, 
occupying about forty feet of the front. Other 
prominent people now began to move into the 
neighborhood, Alexander Hamilton among them 
and Wall Street became a rival of Queen Street. 

Old prints exist showing the site, with the old 
City Hall, later Federal Hall and its colonnade 
over the sidewalk, where Washington was inau- 
gurated in 1789 (now site of the Sub-Treasury) .* 

* New York Mirror, 1830, vol. VII. Also Stokes Iconography 
of Manhattan Ishmd, plates in vol. I. 

11 



Samuel Verplanck had held office under the 
British government and was one of the Gover- 
nors of Kings, now Columbia College, where he 
took his degree in 17.58 with seven other students 
in the first graduating class. He was also one 
of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce. 
When the Revolution opened, and, by the way, 
open resistance to British rule began in Xew 
York before the Battle of Lexington, in the en- 
gagement at Golden Hill in 1774, (site of Gold 
and John Streets), Samuel Verplanck espoused 
the cause of the colonists and was a member of 
the Committee of Safety, a body of citizens 
chosen to take charge of the city government 
upon the seizure of the public buildings in 1775. 
His wife, on the other hand, leaned to the Brit- 
ish side, and during its occupation of New York, 
Sir William Howe, then in command, with other 
officers were often entertained at the Verplanck 
mansion. As souvenirs of the visits Mrs. Ver- 
planck was given a tea-set of fine china and two 
paintings* which are still preserved by her de- 
scendants. Sir William Howe was relieved early 
in the war by Sir Henry Clinton who prosecuted 
the campaign against us with great vigor. Sir 

* By Angelica Kaufifmann, a native of Switeerland who went to 
I-ondon in 1766 and became distinguished as an historical and 
portrait painter. 

12 




D ==• 



William was quite a different man from his able 
and energetic elder brother, Admiral Lord Howe, 
who had made an attempt to effect a reconcilia- 
tion with the colonies before hostilities began. A 
portrait of Samuel Verplanck by Copley is owned 
by Matilda C. Verplanck at Fishkill, N. Y. 

In 1822 Daniel C. Verplanck, only son and 
heir of Samuel, reluctantly sold the Wall Street 
front of the property to the Bank of the United 
States. The price, $40,000, was deemed a large 
one at that time. He had been a member of 
Congress, and later judge of Dutchess County, 
where, after the sale, he went to live at Fishkill 
on the Hudson River in a house known as Mount 
Gulian, built a century earlier. The adjacent 
land, several thousand acres in extent, had been 
bought of the Wappinger Indians in 1683 by his 
ancestor jointly with Francis Rombout, the In- 
dian deed having been confirmed by patent of 
James II. A portrait of D. C. Verplanck by 
Copley, Boy tvith a Squirrel, is owned by the 
author. 

In the next year, 1823,* the Branch Bank of 
the United States was built upon the site, and 
this building in 1853 became the Assay Office, 
and property of the United States, after the char- 
ter of the Bank had expired under the veto by 

* The year of President Monroe's famous "Doctrine." 

15 



President Jackson of the bill renewing it. The 
building was recently removed to make room for 
the present building. The Bank of the State of 
New York and Bank of Commerce had owned 
the property" in turn between 1836 and 1853. 
The corner-stone of the bank was laid April 17, 
1823, and is now a mural tablet in the new build- 
ing. The inscription is: 



The Corner Stone of the Branch Bank or 

THE United States was laid this 17th day of 

April 1823. 

Isaac Lawrence. President. 
Robert Lenox. 
David Gelston. 
Cornelius Ray. 
Isaac Wright. 
James Bogert Jun". 
Edward H. Xicoll. 
Walter Bowne. 
Campbell P. White. 
William B. Astor. 
Henry Kneel and. 
John Haggerty. 
Peter Harmony. 

Morris Robinson. Cashier. 



>- Directors. 



16 




GULIAX C. VERPLANCK 
Born 1786. Died 1870 
From a drawinj: by Paul Dusgan at tlie Century Club. 



The fa9ade of the former building is also pre- 
served at the Metropolitan Museum. 

The Bank of the United States was then in a 
flourishing state under the second charter of 1816 
of a twenty-year term, with Nicholas Biddle of 
Philadelphia its president, elected in 1823; but 
dark days came in 1829 in President Jackson's 
first administration. At that time D. C. Ver- 
planck's son, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was 
a member of Congress. He had been born on 
this site and spent his youth there. On the death 
of his wife in Paris, soon after his marriage, he 
returned to New York after a sojourn in Eu- 
rope and entered politics, and was soon sent to 
the Assembly for several terms. In 1825 he was 
sent to Congress by the Democratic party as the 
former Republican party of Jefferson had now 
become known. He never remarried, and his 
two sons were brought up by his sister. He re- 
mained in public service for more than fifty years 
of his life. 

Jackson, taking advantage of some abuses in 
the management of the bank called for the repeal 
of the charter. Its advocates retorted by passing 
a bill renewing it for twenty years. Verplanck, 
who favored the bank, urged delay, pointing out 
that the charter would not expire until 1836. 



19 



Nevertheless the bill was passed, sent to the 
President in 1832, and received his veto. All ef- 
forts to override it failed. The Bank War was 
on. 

Another source of bitter contention at this per- 
iod w\is the attitude of South Carolina toward 
the tariff. Verplanck, as chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means, had brought in a bill 
for a substantial reduction of duties which had 
the support of the President and of the Demo- 
cratic party, except the Calhoun faction, who 
threatened on the part of South Carolina, open 
resistance to the Federal Government unless the 
whole principle of a protective tariff was dis- 
avowed. They became known as Nullifiers. 
Whereupon Jackson dispatched General Scott 
to Charleston to support the collector in the 
event of obstacles being put in the way of col- 
lecting the revenue. It looked like war. A com- 
promise was at length effected under the leader- 
ship of Henry Clay and other Whigs and an ex- 
cuse was thus afforded for not proceeding to 
extremities. 

Another controversy which caused even more 
rancor in Jackson's administration was due to 
Mrs. Eaton, wife of his Secretary of War. Now 
tlie Democratic party, outside of South Carolina, 



20 










S)c^^li^v/ir^^^i€.^^^^Z^ 



DEWITT CLINTON 
Born 1769. Died 1828 
From a silhouette at the University Club. 



.'T-1 




ANDREW JACKSON 
Born 1767. Died 1845 
From a silhouette at the University Club. 



as a rule supported the President, yet changes in 
the Cabinet were frequent. Taney became At- 
torney-General in place of Berrien, and Van 
Buren gave up the State Department to Living- 
ston to become Minister to Great Britain. These 
were some of the changes which had excited com- 
ment and which scandal attributed to Mrs. 
Eaton.* The wives of the Calhoun faction as 
well as some other ladies refused to associate 
with her. The President, however, zealously 
espoused her side, for her husband was an old 
and intimate friend, and the storm raged. Old 
Hickory triumphed in the end and preserved his 
popularity notwithstanding the new enemies 
which were made by the removal of deposits from 
the Bank of the United States, after his reelec- 
tion. 

Jackson's administration was marked by main- 
tenance of friendly relations with Great Britain, 
and the settlement of long-standing disputes with 
France, Portugal, and Kingdom of Naples. He 
had the satisfaction of seeing the election of his 
friend Van Buren to the Presidency in 1836 over 
Harrison, White and Webster. 

Verplanck, with others of his party, became 

* In Martin Van Buren, by Edward M. Shepard (Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., 1899), this episode is treated at some length. Vide 
pp. 181-184. 

25 



alienated from the Jackson wing of their party 
over the affair of the United States Bank, an in- 
stitution which he had consistently favored. Ac- 
cordingly, at the end of his fourth term he retired 
from Congress. The enactment of a law greatly 
enlarging the copyright of authors, secured 
through his efforts while in Congress, was the oc- 
casion of a public dinner given him by the citi- 
zens of New York, at which Washington Irving 
presided. 

In 1834 the citizens of New York were per- 
mitted for the first time to choose their mayor. 
While under both Dutch and English rule the 
mayors of cities were elected by the citizens, the 
Constitution of 1777, by which the Province of 
New York became a State, deprived them of that 
privilege and conferred the power upon the Coun- 
cil of Appointment, a body of State officers, cre- 
ated in 1801, when the governor was stripped of 
that and other powers. This body soon fell under 
the domination of a small group known as the 
Albany Regency. Among its early members 
were Martin Van Buren, Benjamin F. Butler, 
William L. Marcy and Silas Wright. 

The Society of Tammany, or the Columbian 
Order, to give the corporate name by its charter 
of 1805, put in the field as candidate for mayor, 
Cornelius Lawrence, while Gulian C. Verplanck, 

26 




DANIEL WEBSTER 

Born 178:3. Died 1852 
From a silliouette at the University Club. 



also associated with that bodj^ but fallen out with 
it over the United States Bank affair, was nom- 
inated on a sort of non-partisan, or citizens 
ticket, as it would be called today. 

The campaign was conducted with vigor and 
excitement and resulted in the election of Law- 
rence by a very close vote — some counts made it 
less than a dozen ballots. 

About the end of the eighteenth century this 
country was torn by strife between the partizans 
of France and of Great Britain, and it was to 
allay such rancor that in 1789 the Society of 
Tammany was formed, besides its fraternal ob- 
jects. The founders of the Order, with branches 
in other states, took as an emblem a chief of the 
Delaware Indian tribe, who was a sage rather 
than a warrior. The nomenclature of the Amer- 
ican Indian was also followed for the officers, 
such as Sachem and Sagamore; meetings were 
called so many hours "after the setting of the 
sun," etc. The society soon became a power in 
local politics as an American party, disclaiming 
both France and England during their prolonged 
warfare which had a disturbing effect upon us. 

A few years later Verplanck became recon- 
ciled to his former party associates and was sent 
to the State Senate for several terms. While 



29 



there he took a prominent part in the Court for 
the Corrections of Errors and Appeals. This 
body was modelled upon the judicial powers of 
the House of Lords and consisted of the Chan- 
cellor, the Senators and certain designated judges 
of the Supreme Court. It sat in final review of 
causes in law and equity. In 1846 it was abol- 
ished by the radical constitution of that year. 
New Jersey still finds valuable her similarly con- 
stituted court. 

The disturbed state of Europe at this period 
and particularly the great famine in Ireland 
brought hordes of aliens into the port of Xew 
York, which not only increased destitution and 
crime but thronged the town with people who 
had come to the country to settle. The Federal 
Government having failed to take any action, 
the State of New York in 1847 created the Com- 
mission of Emigration, with Gulian C. Verplanck 
as president. In this work of seeing to the wel- 
fare of aliens and finding them homes in the 
West he spent upwards of fifteen years, a ser- 
vice which continued until the work was assumed 
by the Federal Government. He was also a 
member of boards of charity, of education, a di- 
rector in banks and other corporations. Besides 
editing an illustrated edition of Shakespeare's 



30 




JOHX C. CALHOUN 
Born 1782. Died 1850 
From a silhouette at tLe T'niversity Club. 



plays, he made many addresses throughout the 
country at college commencements and elsewhere. 
A man of strong convictions, yet whose wisdom, 
tolerance and simplicity aroused universal re- 
spect. Nevertheless, about 1860 the general es- 
teem in which he was held suffered an eclipse. He 
had refused to join the new Republican party. 
While opposed to slavery and its extension into 
the Territories, yet he believed that its abolition 
was a problem for each State to solve ; much pro- 
gress in that way having been accomplished. He 
preferred to stand with Seymour, Hoffman, 
Tilden and others. They were one and all gross- 
ly misrepresented by the press during the decade 
1860-1870. 

The rancor and partisan enmity engendered 
by the Civil War seem to have increased on the 
death of Lincoln, and the fact forgotten that the 
men with whom Verplanck stood at that time sup- 
ported the administration after Fort Sumter had 
been fired on, that Tammany had sent many vol- 
unteers to fill the armies of the north throughout 
the war, several of whom became officers, distin- 
guished for bravery and ability. Yet such has 
been the effect of the partisan writing of this per- 
iod that the men mentioned stand in a false light 
in what passes for history, and so strong was the 
feeling against them that they often suffered 



social ostracism. The truth concerning Ameri- 
can history is gradually emerging from the mists 
of prejudice and pro^^ncialism. 

What will the future historians say of the 
measures which the United States took to abol- 
ish slavery, to mention one of several evils which 
called for reform? Great Britain heeded her 
able and temperate minded statesmen and abol- 
ished the institution in 1834 without bloodshed, 
and so did France and Brazil. The United 
States had such moral material in both parties 
and in the North and in the South, but it was 
without a leader. The sinister alliance of the cot- 
ton growers of the South with the cotton spin- 
ners of the North stifled the conscience of the 
Nation during the fateful years between the Mis- 
souri Compromise of 1820 and its repeal. Even 
Webster had voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. 
When at length the national conscience was 
aroused by William Lloyd Garrison and others, 
it was too late ; civil war ensued and many of its 
evil consequences are still with us. We may pre- 
dict that the critics of the next generation will as- 
sert that our reforms, for the most part both state 
and national, have been effected through violent 
methods; that we have forgotten the words of 
Edmund Burke in the House of Commons when 
prime minister: "If I cannot reform with equity 

34. 




HENRY CLAY 
Born 1777. Died 1853 
From a silliouette at tlip I'liiversity Club. 



I shall not reform at all." The history of this 
State affords many illustrations. As "^Ir. 
Dooley" once remarked, "We Americans clean 
house with an axe." The Volstead Law under 
the 18th Amendment of the Federal Constitution 
is the latest example. 

The last notable public appearance of Gulian 
Verplanck was on July 4th, 1867, when he made 
an address and laid the corner-stone of the Wig- 
wam of Tammany Hall on Fourteenth Street. 
He died March 18th, 1870, in his 84th year. 

His career began in the "Era of Good-feeling," 
with the "Clintonians"* and "Bucktails," on whom 
he wrote a satire in verse called "Bucktail 
Bards," published in 1819. Then came "Loco- 
focos," "Barn-Burners," "Hunkers" and "Know- 
nothings," to mention some of the factional or 
party epithets of those days, and so on down to 
the "Copperheads" and "Black Republicans" of 
the Sixties. 

During his life the Republican party of Jeffer- 
son finally adopted the name Democratic which 
formerly had a sinister connotation. At one time 
that party was known as Democratic-Republi- 
can — a fomi which Tammany Hall clung to. 
"Doughfaces," as John Randolph of Roanoke 

* A faction headed by De Witt Clinton, opposed by the Buck- 
tails. 

37 



stigmatized the northern members of Congress 
who favored the Missouri Compromise in 1820, 
was also often used in the political strife of the 
State. Soon after the death of Randolph, a dis- 
course on his career was delivered by request in 
the House of Representatives by Gulian Ver- 
planck. They had been fellow-members for 
years. 

A few other facts about the Bank of the 
United States should be noted. The main 
bank was at Philadelphia, which was long the 
financial center of the country. The first bank 
of Hamilton's efforts was chartered in 1791 with 
a capital of ten milhon dollars. The New York 
Branch was in Queen Street, now Pearl. In 
1811 when its charter was about to expire it 
failed of renewal in Congress by one vote — that 
of the vice-president, George Clinton of New 
York. The financial troubles caused by the War 
of 1812 resulted in the recharter of the Bank in 
1816, with a capital of thirty-five million dollars. 
On the expiration of its charter in 1836, as men- 
tioned, the directors obtained a charter from 
Pennsylvania, but the bank suspended in 1837, 
in the widespread crash of that year, and not 
long after, the bank was wound up with a total 
loss to its shareholders. A few years later the 
banking house on Wall Street became the Assay 
Office, as stated. 




/y / ^^^^c^t^^^^^^-t:^^^ 



MARTIN VAX BUREX 
Born 1782. Died 186;? 
From a silhouette at the University Club. 



It is a cause of gratification to the writer that 
the site of the family homestead is embelHshed 
by a commodious and substantial building which 
does credit to the architects, Messrs. York and 
Sawyer, and which insures the continuance of the 
public character of the site, evidenced as it is by 
the public buildings which have stood upon it, as 
well as by its having been the home of a family 
which for three successive generations gave mem- 
bers to the public service. The corner stone is in- 
scribed as follows : 

Building Erected 1919 

William G. McAdoo 

Carter Glass 

secretaries of the treasury. 

Raymond T. Baker 
director of the mint. 

Verne M. Bovie 
superintendent of the assay office 

NEW YORK 

James A. Wetmore 
acting supervising architect 

York & Sawyer — Architects 
Chas. T. Wills, Inc. — Builders 



41 



The Assay Office, with the Mint, may be con- 
sidered an arm of the Federal Reserve Banking 
System, that long stejD which we have recently 
taken towards the restoration of the Hamilton 
bank scheme; and thus there is cause for our 
taking a favorable view of national politics 
when one considers the changed attitude of the 
Democratic party toward Federal Banking. 
We have seen President Wilson with the able as- 
sistance of Congressman Glass building up where 
President Jackson and his party tore down 
eighty years earlier. 



42 




iS^-^t^..^^ ,.i/Z^.C^,^_y:Z^ 



JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 
Born 1773. Died 1833 
From a silhouette at the University Club. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 220 553 1 



